ENGMATE101 Structures and Properties - Spring 2023

Tutorial 02:
April 4, 2023

1 Failure
A material is to be selected for a landing gear part for a cargo aircraft and requires to being able to
carry a direct tensile load of 3 MN. It is roughly rectangular (A = w · t) in cross-section with a width
w = 0.2 m.

By considering yield in tension as one possible failure mode and fracture from a 0.5 mm deep edge-
crack as a second possible failure mode, obtain values of thickness t for the section for each of the
five metals listed in the table below. Find the material which can achieve the design criterion at the
minimum weight. (see Table 1).
Note: Y for a rectangular plate is ≈ 1.12.

Table 1

1
ENGMATE101 Structures and Properties - Tutorial 02 page 2 out of 9

2 Pressure vessel - Materials

It can be shown that the equation for the maximum tensile stress σmax ( the so-called the ”hoop
stress”) for a spherical pressure vessel (see figure Q1A) of mean radius r and wall-thickness t subject
to an internal pressure p, that the (thin) wall of a cylinder pressurised with pressure p can take before
bursting is given by:
rp
σmax = (1)
2t

Pressure vessel

(a) Show that the above equation has the correct units.

Table 2

(b) Table 2 lists 6 different materials that could be used to design such a pressure vessel. Which of
the materials would lead to the lightest (minimum mass) design?

(c) What is the wall thickness for the lightest design from b)? How would we need to change the
wall thickness for “safe” design, allowing for an overall safety factor of 2?

(d) Using the price per unit pb from table 2, which material would give the cheapest design?

Note: Assume that radius and pressure of the design are fixed; Volume of a spherical shell, V = 4πr2 t
ENGMATE101 Structures and Properties - Tutorial 02 page 3 out of 9

Table 1: Material properties

Alloy Young’s Mod- Strain (millis- Diameter of
ulus (GPa) train) the bar (mm)
A 210 5.95 14
B 40 9.75 30
C 95 5.16 23
D 110 8.72 17

3 Material Selection
1. You have bars made of four different materials. Each bar has a circular cross-section and the
same fixed length. Your bar should be as strong as possible. Using the values in table 1 and
assuming the same length for each bar, determine which material would produce the bar with
the highest tensile strenght.
Hint: Handout 04, Chapter 5)

2. The resistance to fracture of four different metal alloys is being investigated. Samples of the
metals have been prepared with artificial cracks (through thickness surface crack) of depth 100
µm in one edge and the tensile stress at which they fail noted.

Table 2: Material properties

Material Max. pro- Tensile Yield Fracture Stress
duction defect Stress σyield σf racture for
(µm) (MPa) 100µm (MPa)
MA1 500 1480 3022
MA2 300 260 856
MA3 150 972 2770
MA4 750 654 1259

a) Calculate the fracture toughness for each of the four metal alloys.

b) Due to the very different manufacture processes each material will have a different maximum
defect size in produced components (listed in the table below). Also the yield stresses of the
metal alloys are listed. Determine whether components produced from each of the metal alloys
will fail in yield or fracture.

c) The metal alloys are to be used for the production of solid circular bars required to support a
tensile design load of 3 MN. Due to design constraints there is a requirement to make this bar as
small as possible. Which metal alloy can be used to produce a bar with the smallest diameter?
ENGMATE101 Structures and Properties - Tutorial 02 page 4 out of 9

4 Phase diagrams
Figure Q3A shows the phase diagram of aluminium and silicon.

Figure Q4A

(a) What is the composition of a 50 % Al-Si alloy at a temperature of 500 ◦ C?

(b) Using the lever rule, determine the composition of the phase of an 50 % Al-50 % Si alloy at
T = 800 ◦ C
Formula sheet - Second Exam VERSION Fall 2020

General formulas:

• Equilibrium conditions: The resultant of any set of forces can be determined by adding

– all the “x” components: Fx ,

– all the “y” components: Fy ,
#»
A force F has components in any co-ordinate system; in statics, most of the time we will use
simple Cartesian co-ordinates.

Figure 4.1: In a Cartesian system, we can find the components of a vector simply by using the sin
and cosine function.

In a Cartesian system, we can find the components of a vector simply by using the sin and cosine
function
 #»  (see Fig. 4.1) and using Pythagoras to work out the magnitude of the resultant force
F R  (which is a scalar!):
 

 #»  qX X
F R  = Fx2 + Fx2
 

We can also find the angle a which the resultant makes with the x-axis. It is given by:
Fy
α = arctan
Fx

• Moments:

• Stress and Strain:

– Uniform unidirectional direct stress (tension or compression)

F
σ=
A
– Direct uniform strain
∆L
=
L
– Uniform shear strain
d
= tan yx ∼
= yx := γ
h

Figure 4.2: The moment about point O produced by the force F is defined as the product of the force
F and the perpendicular distance d. The perpendicular distance d from point O to the line of action
of F is also called moment arm.
Formula sheet - Second Exam VERSION Fall 2020

– Safety factor (SF)

Ff ail
SF =
Fallowed
– Uniaxial Tension
σxx
xx =
E
and
ν
yy = zz = − σxx
E
– Pure Shear Stress
τ = Gγ

– Bulk modulus (hydrostatic pressure)

σx = σy = σz = σvol

1 − 2ν
vol = 3σvol
E
leading to a bulk modulus K of
σvol E
K= =
vol 3(1 − 2ν)

• Mechanical Properties:

– Hooke’s Law
F = k∆L

– Elastic Stiffness k:
F = σA1 = k∆L = kL1

– Griffith’s criterion: r
2Eγs
σC =
πa
– Fracture Toughness: √
KC = Y σC πa
For thin structures, Y = 1.12 and we can use the following equations:

KIC
2
KIc √
σf = √
1.12 πa
acrit = 1.122 πa
KIc = 1.12σ πa

• Avogadro’s number:

1 mole of particles = 6.02214076 · 1023 = NA

molar mass = molecular mass · NA

1
1 Dalton =
NA
• Ionic character:
−(XA +XB )2
(%) = (1 − e 4 ) ∗ 100%

• Density:
n · ASr
ρ=
V C · NA
Formula sheet - Second Exam VERSION Fall 2020

• Thermal expansion:
∆L
= αl · ∆T
L0
• Linear Density:
Number of atoms in unit cell along the direction
LD =
length

• Planar Density:
Number of atoms in unit cell along the direction
PD =
Area of plane in unit cell

• Distance between planes in a cubic lattice:

a
dhkl = √
h2 + k 2 + l2

• Constants:
e = 9.11 · 10−31 kg
p = 1.67 · 10−24 kg
q = 1.602 · 10−19 C
1eV = 1.602 · 10−19 V
m2 kg eV
kB = 1.38 · 10−23 2
= 8.61 × 10−5
s K K
kB T
at 300K = 0.026 V
q
• Electrical Properties:
ρA
R=
l
1
σ=
ρ
• Electrical Properties in Semiconductors:

σn = nqµe

σp = nqµh

• Optical Properties:
I = I0 exp (−αx)

• Solar Cells:
Formula sheet - Second Exam VERSION Fall 2020

Figure 4.3: Lever rule for a binary system

• Lever rule

S Cα −C0
WL = R+S or WL = Cα −CL

R C0 −CL
Wα = R+S or Wα = Cα −CL

• Fractions of monomers

Fraction of polymer molecules that have n monomers:

Nn
xn = P
n Nn

Fraction of monomers that are in chains with n monomers

Nn n xn n
wn = P =P
n Nn n n xn n

Note: wn is also the fraction of mass of a polymer sample due to molecules with molar mass Mn
Nn Mn xn M n
wn = P =P
n Nn Mn n xn M n

• Number average
X
nn = xn n
n

• Weight average
X
nw = wn n
n

• Number average molar mass

P
Mn = mnn = x n Mn
Formula sheet - Second Exam VERSION Fall 2020

• Weight average molar mass:

P
Mw = mmw = x n Mw

• Polydispersity index:
nw Mw
D= =
nn Mn
• Viscosity

σ
η = d
dt

stress stress shear stress

rate of deformation = rate of flow = shear strain rate

• Relaxation Modulus:
σ(t)
Er =
0

• Creep Modulus:
σ0
EC =
(t)

• Mixture rules for composites (c ) (Matrix (m ) and Filler (f ))

1 = Vm + Vf
ρc = ρm Vm + ρf Vf

• Isostrain

c = m = f = 
Ec = Em Vm + Ef Vf

• Isostress

σc = σm = σf = σ
Em Ef
Ec =
Em Vf + Ef Vm